It feels like is was just p-day, holy cow, but at the same time it feels like I have been here for ages in Manzanillo. But this is just the start of the 3rd week of my training. Honestly, we didn’t do much this p-day. I woke up at 6:30 and went back to sleep at 7:00, then got back up, made some breakfast, did our studies and everything we are supposed to do. Then when p-day started at 10:30 we both decided that the first thing we wanted to do was sleep. We were both just super tired. So we slept for a couple of hours. Best nap of my life. Then a member paid for a taxi to pick us up and bring us to their house where they made hamburgers for us. They were so good, sirloin patties. I mean it was such a treat to eat something American! Afterwards we used the full 2 hours to email this week. It still doesn’t feel like enough time to email everybody and say everything that you want to say. I don’t know how my siblings did it in under an hour. I think that Garrison had about 40 minutes to email, crazy. We accidentally took the wrong bus back to our area so it took like 3 times longer than it should have to get home. We only had enough time left in the day to teach one lesson and make a few contacts, but at least it was one awesome lesson. We taught a woman who is trying to raise and feed 4 kids without a job. She lives next to a member family and she has seen the change in their lives since they became members and now she wants the same things for her family. They all live in a tiny house that houses three separate families. She accepted a baptismal date for December 3rd. As many times as we teach lesson 1, it still invites the Spirit in a very powerful way, even with distractions. Today for example, in the middle of our lesson, this thoroughly drunk guy stumbles in and says something about Jesus as he nearly passes out on Elder Long. Then a super annoying motorcycle stopped right next to us, blasting music. But even with these distractions, you could still feel the Spirit. There is something about sharing the message of the restoration the is so powerful. Everyday I am reminded of all the things that I have to improve on and how much I need to change. It is very humbling to say the least. But I love it. I have never had a moment where i think, “Oh this sucks, why am I here?” So I guess that I must be doing the right thing.
October 18, 2016
Wow, I am tired. We only had two lessons today but it’s all good because we got fed so well. Lunch was a 4 course meal and we also got fed dinner! I want to know why people feed the missionaries so much. It is over the top, out of control. My companion wants to start running for exercise so we went this morning….it was HORRIBLE and I was just exhausted all day long. The only noteworthy thing today was that we gave someone a blessing. It is actually the second blessing we've given since I have been here. I also taught the Elders and Hermanas how to make commitments in English. Pretty bland day with way too much delicious food.
October 19, 2016
I am so freaking sore today. I hate running. Literally all of our appointments fell through today and also our references. We left early to go to a special reference and it didn’t work out. We will have to try again on another day. Then we walked literally 5 miles trying to find people to teach. Lunch was solid though and from that point on we had someone to drive us around so my sore muscles were saved. I just hate being sore. I don’t mind stuff falling through with investigators, that’s just part of the work. But, that coupled with how physically tired and sore I was made the day pretty hard. And, on top of that, I got a pretty bad sunburn.
October 20, 2016
I am so tired! It was a long day today. They feed you so much here and it is all so delicious. I learned the other day that you always have to finish your food or else people will hate you forever. Someone bought us and entire bag of pan dulce which we can not refuse. I hate eating this much, but the food is amazing. The father of the woman’s house we ate at was there today. He is this crazy old guy who believes that God is an alien and kids dies because of their parents sins and a ton of other crazy stuff that I can’t understand. All he wants to do is talk and never listen. That was an interesting experience for me. We also helped a family literally tear apart a car, like we took a chisel and hammer to the roof.
Today was cool. We had one solid lesson with a woman who prayed for the first time in her life. She has a really hard life and her pray was so sincere. It was a cool experience. Tomorrow is packed with lessons that will hopefully work out. We had our weekly planning meeting with the ward mission leader today.
October 21, 2016
Manzanillo is so awesome on rainy days. It just drizzled all day long and that kept things cool. We had a cool lesson this morning with a young man who was a referral. He has a ton of potential. Not much else happened. We made some good contacts, worked with a few investigators, visited some less active members.
October 22, 2016
So the young man that we taught yesterday is amazing. He read 20 pages from the Book of Mormon since yesterday. He even marked passages and like scriptures together. This never happens. He is just a really smart kid and has the most interesting questions. I am worried though because his Mom is very Catholic and is not happy with her son taking the lessons. Everything else was pretty normal today. Some appointments fell through, other lessons worked out, and we made few good contacts. We have been studying about asking inspired questions by discerning peoples needs through the Spirit. I think that I am pretty good at listening to people usually, but it is almost impossible for me to combine listening, understanding, discerning, and ask inspired questions in SPANISH. I just need to trust that as I do the work and have faith, that these things will happen. Teach people, not lessons. Oh and we found out that we are going on divisions with the assistants of the mission president on Monday. We have to leave tomorrow though, because the are on the other side of the mission in Jala. I have no idea why we are going with them. It is more than a bit nerve wracking. It is also going to mess up our p-day schedule big time. We will see what happens.
Well weird day today. We went to church, ate lunch, and then left Manzanillo. It was like a 5 hour bus ride to Guadalajara through the countryside. We saw some volcanoes. We got to the offices at about 8:00 pm and hung out for about an hour. They showed us the storeroom with all the mission supplies which was really cool. But he best part was that almost all of the space was taken up by 60 air-conditioning units!! After this change, everyone in the Tepil, Santiago, Vallarta, and some other places get air conditioners. It is really going to happen! We won't have to resort to spraying water into the fans to cool us down at night. It was an interesting night. We stayed up with Elder Hyde and his companion playing Jenga. Good day.
Divisions with the assistants today! First of all I have to say that none of us got up right on time except Elder Long. But I was up and ready by 7 though, which is not bad for me. The other elders weren't ready to go until 9 which seemed a bit odd to me and my companion. After a bus ride and taxi ride, we were in Jala. The taxi cost about 100 pesos (5$) for about a 30 minute ride. Jala is a super cool little pueblo at the foot of some mountains. It is hot like Manzanillo, but without the humidity from the ocean. It is so nice not to sweat constantly. We had to wait almost two hours for the assistants to show up though, which kind of sucked, but we took the time to see a few sights. We couldn’t take any pictures because it would make us look too much like tourists. It is a super Catholic area, but surprisingly the work is pretty good. There is only about 14 active members from Jala and a bunch more from the surrounding little towns. Seven of the 14 are recent converts. It was an interesting experience. I went out with Elder manriquez first and we just set a bunch of appointments and went to lunch I really like him. He is super relaxed but also a great missionary. He is a Mexican American so his English and his Spanish are perfect. After lunch, we traded companionships and Elder Manrique took Elder Long with him to Tepic to settle an issue with missionary housing. I went out with ElderUribe to teach and contact. Elder Uribe is a freaking good missionary. Pretty much everyone gave him their address. We taught two really cool investigators and I got some really really good pistachio ice cream. It was a cool night and we ate calzones and pizza for dinner because they didn’t have any food in their house. I put my first hole in the back of my shoe lining by the heel, and I pulled the hem out of my slacks. So yeah, I am already wearing out in the first month of my mission.
So many buses in the last 3 days. I think we have spent 20 hours on a bus or in a taxi. It’s good t be back in Manzanillo, even with the heat and humidity. The bus rides were beautiful though. The countryside through Jalisco is pretty amazing. I still like the Rocky Mountains better though with the snowcapped mountains and glacial lakes. That doesn’t really assist here, ha. We went by bus from Manzanillo to Gualahaja to Ixtlan to Jala to Ixtlan to Tepic to Guadalajara to Manazillo. Add on a 20-30 minute taxi ride at almost each stop. So fun. But we are back and we are going to take a sort of half p-day tomorrow.
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